Heartbeats
by Ptolomeia
Summary: As she listens to their heartbeats, Toph tries really, REALLY hard, not to play match maker for her friends. Starts canon relationships, then TOPH


Despite everything her friends might say, Toph did actually know when it was best to keep her mouth shut. She didn't always do it, but she could. If she wanted to.

"We're engaged," Zuko had said, holding Mai's hand gently. They were standing too far apart, though, for her taste. She also didn't like the way that Zuko's heart beat sped up every time he looked at Katara, but mostly stayed even when he held Mai's hand.

"Congrats, Sparky!" she joined in, forcing her trademark grin as everyone else joined in.

Later that night she stopped by the new Fire Lord's office. She could feel him hard at work as she pushed open the door. The guards knew better that to stop her. Zuko only looked up from his work when she closed the door behind her.

"Toph?" he asked, his feet settling more firmly onto the floor, getting ready to move quickly even in his big fancy robes. "Is everything alright?"

"Do you love Mai?" she asked, feeling for him carefully through her feet. He froze, and Toph felt his heartbeat speed up—as it hadn't when he'd been holding Mai's hands. Then he carefully, ever so slightly, lifted his feet from the floor before answering.

"Of course I do," he responded, making an obvious effort to keep his voice level. Toph sighed. That was answer enough for her.

"That's what I thought," she answered, before leaving quietly. She could slam the door behind her, make a scene, throw him and Katara in a stone box together and distract the Avatar for long enough that the water- and firebender would get past their differences and more, hopefully. Hell, if there was a possible heir on the way, there was no way they could break it off, right?

But no, she thought to herself as she slipped silently down the corridor, the very stone accepting and silencing her footsteps. The Fire Nation wasn't ready for a Water Tribe Fire Lady and the world really didn't need an Avatar who was Avatar State levels of pissed off at the Fire Lord. They'd just started to end one war, they couldn't afford to be starting another. Besides, maybe Katara would grow to love Aang and Zuko Mai. Stranger things had happened. Why just last month, a handful of teenagers and some geezers had managed to put an end to the Hundred Years' War. Smiling to herself, she fell into the nest of blankets that Sparky had ordered to be put on the floor for her. Yeah, maybe it would all turn out alright.

* * *

When Aang and Katara came to visit the Fire Lord and his fiancée (it was a long engagement, while they waited till Mai was of marrying age) about nine months later, things had not turned out alright. Things weren't even better. As a matter of fact, worse. Much worse. Toph had stayed with Sparky and Gloomy, making sure only loyal people were guarding the royal couple and so on. Busting a few assasin-y heads, beating trade agreements out of reluctant earth kingdom traders, the usual, so she'd been around to see how little time Gloomy and Sparky actually spent together, and read the total lack of excitement in their heartbeats when they did meet (relieved to see a friend was different from excited to see a lover). Gloomy seemed to be getting more and more bored with each passing day. But, she'd figured, maybe Twinkle Toes and Sweetness would be head over heels and THAT would be fine.

But today, today they'd gotten off Appa and, well, nothing. Actually, no, Toph corrected herself as she beat her favourite block of granite into submission, nothing between the two of them. Sweetness's heart had started pounding like a charging komodo rhino when she'd seen Sparky, which was new. Kinda nice, but in the wrong direction damnit. She was supposed to be falling for Twinkletoes! Really, she was almost as bad as Sparky when he heard she was coming, never mind when he'd actually seen her. But between the Avatar and the waterbender? Zilch. Nada. They were obviously still close friends and cared about each other, but their hearts when they were near each other were, well, it was just kinda sad. UGH! With a stomp of her feet and a jerk of her arms, the granite finally settled and Toph finally took a moment to notice what she'd been bending without thinking about it. It was a statue of Sweetness and Sparky together. They were smiling. Disgusted with both herself and her friends, she bent the granite back into a block of stone that would give nobody's secrets away.

A week later she was lying on the floor of one of the palace's gardens and just listening to everything that was going on. It could be a fun way to pass the time and she could feel the whole palace from here, pretty much. For all that this was supposed to be the Fire Nation Palace, they sure liked their stone. (She guessed fire made less of a good building material, despite Sparky's wall of flame in the throne room.) She smirked as she focused on the servants' quarters. It seemed like Hazan had finally learned that it wasn't _his_ kid that Ariza was pregnant with. Toph had been wondering how that one was going to turn out. She snickered to herself before feeling Appa land in the stables. Twinkletoes had gone up before she lay down. Flying always seemed to clear the monk's head and, since she knew that Sweetness was in her room, hiding from Sparky, who was hiding from her, maybe it had given Twinkletoes the perspective he needed to realize that he and Sweetness should break up. Well, she could hope.

It was then that Toph felt another set of feet touch the ground in the light, graceful gate that Toph had become very familiar with these past nine month. And as soon as those feet hit the ground, Toph found herself feeling floored, like a perfectly good, solid stone floor had suddenly decided to turn to ice, making her slip and hurt her head. Toph could hardly believe what she was feeling. If she wasn't feeling it herself she'd never have believed it possible, because what she felt, was, was, was… Gloomy and Twinkletoes, standing just a little too close together, for 'just friends', their hearts going like a rabaroo's. This… this… Toph hadn't seen THIS coming.

"Toph?" a voice called out to her. Fortunately for the fate of the world, the Fire Lord managed to dodge the clump of earth she sent at his head.

" _Toph?!_ " Sparky cried, sounding kind of confused and hurt.

"Damn it Sparky, don't sneak up on me like that!" she yelled, turning to face him, her cheeks flushing, slightly embarrassed that he had managed to when he hadn't even been _trying_. She felt his head tilt as he considered her.

"Toph, you okay?"

"I'm just fine Sparky. What do you want?" she scowled at him. She felt his heartbeat speed up. Ah, whatever it was, it had to be about Sweetness.

"I was just wondering if you know if Katara was doing alright. I've barely seen her since she got here… Should I send the physician to check on her?" Toph gave him a blank stare until he started to fidget.

"I dunno Sparky, she's a master waterbender who practically raised you from the dead, to hear you tell it, and actually raised Aang when his heart stopped beating. Do you think she needs the physician?" Toph knew full well that what Katara suffered from was not something that a physician could heal.

"Oh. Um. Right. I guess I'll see you at dinner then…" he trailed off before turning to leave. Toph said nothing. Her parents had interfered in her life so much and she'd hated it. Sparky, Gloomy, Sweetness, Twinkletoes, they were all their own people. They could make their own decisions. It wasn't her place to say anything. Besides, the Fire Nation still wasn't ready for a Water Tribe Fire Lady yet, even if it was a lot closer. And they wouldn't have to deal with a pissed off Avatar…

"You know," Toph heard herself say as she curled her arms around her knees, and felt Zuko stop to listen. "It's a shame that you love Mai so much. You should hear Katara's heart beat everything time she sees you." Toph smiled slightly to herself. And she'd thought his heart had beat fast before.

Toph smiled to herself later that night as Sparky lead Sweetness into one of the few rooms in the palace with wooden floors and she felt Twinkletoes and Gloomy running across rooftops together before disappearing from her earth sense. Seemed like Twinkletoes was taking them gliding.

She stopped smiling, however, when she woke in the middle of the night to feel Sweetness crying a few doors down and Sparky throwing something against his office wall. Twinkletoes and Gloomy still weren't back.

The Avatar and his girlfriend cut their visit to the Fire Lord short three days later. Zuko barely left his office for a week afterwards. It didn't matter. Toph could still feel his heart breaking. She was starting to wish she hadn't said anything at all.

* * *

6 months later, when the whole gang found themselves in the Jasmine Dragon, and Sweetness and Twinkletoes announced their engagement, Toph decided that enough was enough.

"No," she said, pushing herself away from the wall she'd been leaning on and cutting through the flood of congratulations that came from all, no matter what their hearts said they were actually feeling.

"What?" came a chorus around her. Not from Sparky, she noticed, but she could feel how he was glaring at her. He thought this was just about him? Well, frost that (Frost? Damn did she need to spend less time in the Fire Nation)! She wasn't about to see four of the people that she really cared about allow themselves to make themselves miserable for the rest of their lives. Gloomy had grown on her, these past months and, besides, she make Twinkletoes happy. Twinkletoes would be happy, so no pissed off Avatar and Toph had heard the songs being sung in Katara's praise in taverns. Maybe the court would need some work, but the people of the Fire Nation would be happy to have her as their Fire Lady.

"I said no," she said, firming her stance. They might be stubborn, but she was the Blind Bandit. The world's greatest earthbender! The first and only metalbender! Getting stubborn things to bend they way they should is what she did best. "This is ridiculous! None of you love each other!" The four in question flinched. She could feel Sokka lean forward, about to ask some questions, but a gesture from Gramps and Suki's hand on his shoulder (those two she could tell were happy. She was really glad she had two friends who could get their own heads out of places that mentioning would probably have Sweetness washing out her mouth with soapy water), stopped him. "Actually," Toph continued after a pause. "That's wrong. You all do love each other, just none of the people who are actually engaged are in love with their fiances."

"Toph," Sparky said warningly, his heartbeat thudding in his chest as his feet shifted into a slightly better defensive position. He was worried about being attacked? Well he was a big kid, and it was his own damn fault for not sorting it out sooner.

"No, Zuko. This isn't just about you and Katara." She could feel Aang's head turning incredulously to look between Sparky and Sweetness. "Cause Mai doesn't love you anymore and, Katara, normally I'd hate to tell you this, but right now, I really, really don't, but Aang doesn't love you either!" This time she could practically hear Katara's jaw drop as she turned to look at her soon-to-be-no-longer-fiancé. "In part," Toph continued, calming down some and making an effort to track the heartbeats in the room. "Because he and Mai fell in love months ago." Aang was tensing, getting ready to fly outta there and not on Toph's watch. A twitch of her toes had all four lovers' feet wrapped in stone. Thank gods they were all looking for attacks from the other or this never would have worked. Aang started to bend the earth away but before he could Suki darted forward jabbing him there, there and there, his arms now useless. Toph smirked. Looks like Bouncy was a pretty good teacher.

"Thanks Fangirl," she said, nodding to the woman.

"It seemed like this conversation needed to happen," Suki shrugged, then took her seat again.

"Alright," Toph said, cracking her knuckles. "Let's get this over with. Zuko, you love Katara?" His heartbeat went wild before he took a deep breath and, looking straight at Sweetness said, "Yes." Katara's heart rate spiked when she heard _that_. "And Katara, you got the hots for Zuko?" Snoozles must have rubbed off on her. That was a terrible pun. Katara looked all around, but her eyes, like lodestones, were always drawn back to Sparky.

"Yes," she admitted, quietly but fiercely. "Yes I do."

"Alright, what about you, Aang and Mai?" From Gloomy the smallest fraction of a nod, just enough so Toph could sense it. Aang, after a last look in Sweetness' direction, nodded too.

"I think it might be wise," interrupted Gramps, "for us to leave these four to speak for a while. Toph, if you would be so kind? And Miss Suki?" Smirking, Toph let the stone floor sink back into its original position and Fangirl poked Twinkletoes in a few other places, letting him move his arms again. Before Snoozles could ask questions or anything else could go wrong, Toph found herself, Fangirl, Snoozles and Gramps walking along the street outside the Jasmine Dragon towards Iroh's home in the Upper Ring.

"How did you know?" asked Snoozles, giving her a considering tilt of his head.

"Sometimes," Toph replied, feeling Twinkletoes and Gloomy taking off on Twinkletoes' glider and Sweetness and Sparky sit far closer than she'd ever felt them before, "All you really gotta do is listen."

* * *

A/N:Toph knowing everything through tremor sense is pretty much my favourite trope ever. Well, one of them at least. I hope you enjoyed and please grace me with your thoughts! Thanks for reading!


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